Content tagged with "human rights"

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Events

March 19th, 2015

Please join the History department for an open screening of the documentary Granito: How to Nail a Dictator. This film tells the story of the search for justice in Guatemala for genocide crimes committed under former military dictator General Efrain Rios Montt’s regime. Kate Doyle will give a brief talk after the screening and participate in a question and answer session, as she was one of the key interview subjects in the documentary. Ms. Doyle currently serves as senior analyst of U.S. policy in Latin America at the National Security Archive, based at George Washington University. This event is co-sponsored with International Affairs, Latin American Studies, SOAN, and funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

News

A coalition of conservation and environmental justice groups today challenged the federal air pollution permit for the Avenal Power Plant proposed in the San Joaquin Valley. In a controversial decision, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exempted the project from several key air pollution standards. The facility, proposed to be built by Texas-based Macquarie Energy, is targeted near the rural communities of Avenal and Kettleman City in California’s San Joaquin Valley, which already has some of the most polluted air in the country. The coalition filed legal papers with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the permit issued by the EPA.

Everyone is encouraged to participate in this survey to study the feasibility of developing and operating a high-quality on-site child development center to serve children of faculty, staff, and students.

Rachel Schumacher ’14 and Nathan Romine ’14 are working alongside Assistant Professor of International Affairs Heather Smith-Cannoy on her upcoming publication on human trafficking; the group studies trafficking both in Oregon and around the world. In the following Q&A, the team members reflect on their experience.

For the seventh year in a row, Lewis & Clark students have earned a competitive grant from philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis’s 100 Projects for Peace Initiative. Over the summer, students Miranda Benson ’13 and Hillary Patin ’14 will promote dance movement therapy and self-defense for women in Varanasi, India.

On August 25, 2011, the U.S. EPA took an important step in protecting civil rights and working for environmental justice by entering into an agreement with the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) to resolve a civil rights complaint filed in 1999 under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI). Title VI prohibits intentional discrimination and discriminatory effects on the basis of race, color, and national origin by recipients of federal financial assistance. By entering into this Agreement, EPA is delivering on its steadfast commitment to protecting and advancing civil rights, reforming the Agency’s Title VI program, addressing the backlog of complaints and providing effective enforcement of Title VI.

In May, Portland got smacked in the face with embarrassing news: Nearly two of every three times they sought a place to rent, African-American and Latino renters found evidence of discrimination from the city’s landlords.The news came from an audit paid for by the city of Portland and conducted by the nonprofit Fair Housing Council of Oregon. The audit claimed minority testers ran across evidence of potential discrimination 64 percent of the time they talked to landlords or rental agents.

A recent meeting that was meant to discuss a new outreach campaign on N. Williams Avenue turned into a raw and emotional exchange between community members and project staff about racism and gentrification.

Majora Carter says “You don’t have to move out of your neighborhood to live in a better one.” Read about how Carter has embraced this philosophy wholeheartedly in her adult life, transforming the neighborhood she was so desperate to escape as a child.

Environmental and other groups sue the EPA in federal court in Los Angeles for its failure to abide by and enforce Clean Air Act requirements. The Los Angeles region is still the smoggiest in the nation according to the American Lung Association’s 2011 State of the Air report and people daily suffer the real-world consequences of our failure to meet smog standards.

Waste-to-energy incineration plants are often a controversial topic. While fancy incinerator-turned-ski-hill projects are a hit in the design-minded blogosphere, others worry about both air quality concerns and the notion that incineration can distract us from better uses for waste like recycling or, gasp, not generating the stuff in the first place. One former coal mining community is up in arms over a planned mega-incinerator. As they pick up their fight, they show that it has often been the residents in resource-rich areas that have suffered the worst side effects of the fossil fuel economy—and provide a powerful reminder that the coming green industrial revolution can and must bring these economically marginalized communities along for the ride.

The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard covers 500 acres on San Francisco’s southeastern flank, jutting out into the bay like the fletching of a giant arrow. Acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1940, it was once one of the West Coast’s largest shipyards, at its World War II peak employing up to 17,000 people, many of them African Americans who settled nearby. The Navy ended its work at the Shipyard in 1974, devastating the local economy, and it was eventually listed for cleanup as a Superfund-equivalent site. These days, it’s a rusting city unto itself, its drydock and warehouses abandoned. For a long time, its only tenants were the city’s crime lab and artists drawn by the cheap space and haunting surroundings: a boarded-up diner, its Pepsi sign intact; the giant crane where the Navy once tested rockets; deserted labs that hosted radiological experiments.As one of the largest chunks of vacant land left in San Francisco – which has some of the highest land values and housing costs in the country – the shipyard represents an immense opportunity. And so last summer, after decades of wrangling and neglect, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved an ambitious redevelopment plan for the site. If completed, it will be one of the largest developments here since the creation of Golden Gate Park – and perhaps the most contentious.

Senior environmental enforcement officials from the U.S. Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) toured sites in Newark, N.J., today and met with federal partners and with environmental and community organizations to discuss mutual efforts to address environmental challenges and enforce environmental laws, and in particular efforts to achieve environmental justice.

Jonathan Ostar, Lewis & Clark Law School alumnus, is working with West Hayden Island residents to ensure that the project, if built, has minimal impacts to that community. Ostar said Hayden Island residents, particularly those in a manufactured home community on the west side of the island, were initially left out of the conversation about the design of the project – and mitigation of its impacts.

Two Lewis & Clark student groups each won $10,000 awards as part of this year’s 100 Projects for Peace initiative sponsored by the family of Katheryn Wasserman Davis. This is the first time that Lewis & Clark College students have won two of the awards in the national competition.

Galleries

Many thanks to Cassie Cohen of Groundwork Portland and Jenn Bildersee of the Portland Brownfields Program for joining us for an educational lunch covering the history of brownfields, brownfields and environmental justice issues in Portland, and local, regional, and national resources.